Stranding



E. A. CONNER May 2, 1933.

STRANDING Original Filed May 9, 1925 3 3 INVENTOR. [awn/70% C'wwvzv A'TTORNEY Patented May 2, 1933- i EDWARD A. CONNEB, OEJBBIDGEPOBT, CONNECTICUT,

COMPANY, IN 0., OF

KENTS, ro Armament cum assrciroa, BY misnn ASSIGN- s'rnaimmo Original application illed ay 9, 1985, Serial 1T0. 29,008. Divided and this application fled September 1,

r 1927. Serial No. 218,798.

This invention relates to wire stranding, by which is meant the formation of a plurality of wires into a strand, or theformation of a plurality of such strands into a wire rope, the expression stranding being here in used generically to designate either of the above operations, or the subsequent formation of a plurality of wire ropes into a cable, as it is not intended to use the expression stranding with any technical limitation to the formation of one ormore layers of wires laid together with or without a core.

The present invention relates to a machine for carrying into efiect the novel rocess of stranding disclosed in my co-pending application Serial No. 29,009,. filed May 9, 1925, from which application the present application has been divided.

An important object of the invention is to provide a stranding machine characterized by means to prope each of a plurality of wires ,or other strand components individually and simultaneously through a die or equivalentineans to effect the preformation of the several components into helices,

and means to lay these helical components together to form a wire strand, rope or cable so that in the completed product the helical components respectively are free from a tendency ,to unravel or separate from each other when severed, such a product being designated as an inert lay strand, rope or cable, forthe sake of brevit This desirable result is preferably accomplished by combining individual driving devices for the several the preforming dies, nozzles or other preformin devices, in a reforming head, and by com ining this pro orminghead in a rotatable unitary structure with reels provided with supplies of component wires, so that the unit as a whole constitutes a rotor or compact rotatable structure constructed and ar-. ranged to la these helical componentstogether and t us produce an inert lay wire strand, rope or cable which can be wound up I on a suitable reel as a completed product.

Accordingly, the result of driving the wire strand components-through the preforming means, rather than drawing them therecomponent wires with through, makes it possible to wind up the completed, strand, rope or cable by much simpler means than when it is necessary to provide a winding apfliance with suitable means for exerting a ormative draft upon the strand, rope or cable while being laid and wound up concurrently, so that the improved process can be carried into efi'ect bymore compact apparatus, simpler to construct and operate, and therefore less expensive to provide and maintain, can be produced with more expedition and at less cost than by the conventional drawing process.

Other objects of the invention will ap ear in the description of the apparatus and its mode of 0(peration to carry into effect the improved riving process. .11} the drawing,

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of a machine adapted to form a strand or rope con-, sisting of a core surroundedby six envelopmg wires or strands,

mg selected merely because it conforms to conventional practice. It is to be understood, however, that the number of strands is by no means invariable, it being, of course, permis sible to use any numberof strand components, with or without a core, which can be prgperly itilized.

1g. 2 is a view in vertical transverse section on the irregular line 22 of Fig. 1, the

' figure being taken on an enlarged scale.

Fig. ,3 is a vertical longitudinal section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a detail .yiew showing one of the preforming devicesisolated, in side elevation and front elevation respectively.

.Referring then to Fig. 1, sn port for'the operating'parts may consist oi standards'l and 2 mounted on any suitable foundation. Power ma be imparted to the machine in any suitab e a gear 3 carried by the lay shaft 4 which extends from the region 6 preferably to actuate suitable take-up mechanism, D, for the comand the completed article this particular number NEW YORK, N Y A. CORPORATION manner through the medium of pleted product, which take-up mechanism is hereinafter described.

The lay shaftqi carries a gear 5, with an idler gear 7 which transmits power to the dle .9 as

ar 8 mounted on a spindle 9, which in turn is mounted in suitable hearings in the standards 1 and 2 and is formed with an axial bore. In order to permit sliding of the spindle through its bearin s in the standards 1 and 2 for the urpose o removing depleted spools and rep acing them with full spools, the ear 8 is made easily removable, being spline on the spindle 9 and locked thereon by a small hand wheel 10 which is screwed on to the end of the shaft. The journal which turns in the bearing in standard 1 is of conventional formatlon and requires no further description. The journal which turns in the bearing in standard 2, however, is preferably of a t pe particularly ada ted for use in t e mac me, and for an un erstanding of it reference is made to Fig. 3, which shows the s inprovided with a collar 11 s line to the spindle and which turns in earings formed in the standard 2 and bearing cap 12, and constitutes the head of the fiyer or rotor, which will be further described in detail. The part 11 is provided with six bores 13, spaced at substantially equal angles with respect to the s indle, through which bores the wires are le from spools 30 to be formed into helices before being wrapped around the core 33 to constitute component parts ofa completed strand as will be described more at length hereinafter. I

The flyer for the unit consists of two arms 14 and 15 integrally or otherwise rigidly connected with the collar 11 and extending substantiall parallel with the spindle 9 and diametrical y opposite to each other. The arm 14 is provided with three swivel pulleys 16, 17, and 18 located respectively in such positions that they will be severally opposite three swivel pulleys 19, 20, and 21 (see Fig. I

. in order that as alternative wire spools carried by the spindle 9. )The arm 15 is likewise provided with being so located that they opposite the remaining The advantage of this arrangement lies in the fact that by means of it approximately uniform distribution of the points of application of the tension on the wires is secured as the wires are drawn from the spools, and even balance of the flyer is secured. The pulleys 16, 17, and 18 and also the pulleys 19, 20, and 21 are swiveled the diameters of the coils of wire are reduced as the wire is drawn off the planes of these pulleys will be approximately tangential to the coils of wire and the wire will run evenly over them. After the wires are drawn over the aforesaid pulleys, their 1) these, however, occupy positions three spools respectively.

through the bores 13 of the collar 11. The

30 are rotatably carried on the spindle 9 and motion of them along the spindle 9 prevented by a collar 31. Since the spools are rotatably mounted on the spindle 9, some sort of means is desirable for damping their free motion thereon and such means may consist of thebrakes 32 carried b one of the arms, as, for instance, arm 15. These brakes bear on the flanges of the spools, each brake preferably operating on two spools. purpose of steadying the arms 14 and .15, their free ends may be provided with rollers 34 which travel on the annular track 35, this arrangement being desirable merely to prevent them from flying out or otherwise runnmg irregularly when the machine is operated at the igh speeds for which it is intended. When it 1s necessary to renew the supply of wire, the hand wheel 10 may be unscrewed and the gear 8 removed. The spindle may then be partially withdrawn in the direction of the arrow a until it is sufficiently clear of the bearing in the standard 1 to permit the removal of the s ools. The s ools may then be removed and ull ones substituted and the spindle restored to its original position for the resumption of the laying operation.

The mechanism thus far described corresponds generally to that illustrated in the patent of Edward A. Conner, No. 1,518,253,

, issued December 9,1924, and is not claimed specificall herein, as the same does not form an essential feature of the present invention, but is shown as a convenient type of structure with which to combine the novel mechanism which I have devised to carry into. effect my improved process of driving the component wires through preforming means, and which I will now describe as follows: 1

In the illustrated embodiment of the .combined preforming means and wire-driving devices, I have shown a preforming head 40 splined upon the spindle 9 and rovided with six nozzles or dies 41, secure in place by screws 42, and having peripheral channels 43 which serve to preform helically the wires 44, for which purpose the latter are driven therethrough by means of six couples or pairs of rolls each comprising a positively driven roll 45 and an idler roll 46, each idler being journalled in bearing blocks 47 pressed outwardly by springs 48 to maintain a uniform contact of the wire 44 with the driving or forcing roll 45 of the couple. The above nozzle or dies 41 constitute a now preferred form of preforming device, which is illustrated in the above mentioned Patent No. 1,518,253 and is described in the aforesaid patent.-(See lines 65 to 73 of page 1.) Each nozzle constitutes a die which is provided with a passage in able diameter and pitch to brin the wires to the proper set to closely hug t e particular core which may be used and to lie closely thereon with respect to each other. Each driving roll 45 is fast on a shaft 49 jourthe form of a helix of suit- For the 53 of the head 40, and on each shaft 49 is fast a worm gear 54 meshing with a worm 55 on a shaft 56 journalled in bearings 57 in brackets 58 carried also by the flange 53.

Each shaft 56 carries also a spur gear 59 engaged with an internal ring gear 60, and upon relative rotation of the head 40 and gear 60 the gears 59 are rotatedwith their shafts 56, and worms 55, actuating the worm-gears 54 to drive the shafts 49 and rolls 45 to drive the wires 44 through the dies 41, from which they issue in proper convergent relation and with the proper helical preformation, to coil together and form a strand 66, each component of which preferably hasa radially contractile set or tendency which constantly maintains the laid relation of the components,

or strand, such as'that shown at 33. This core wire or strand may be derived from any suitable source, such as a spool or reel frictionally controlled to keep the core taut.

In the case of the particular construction of Fig. 1, the completed strand, rope or cable 66 as it leaves the head 40, is passed through a conventional closing die C and is taken up by a suitable drawing-off mechanism D at a point beyond the unit, and which may be actuated by the extension 6 of the lay shaft.

Any conventional type of take-up mechanism may be used, it being only necessary that its speed be coordinate with the speed of the flyer, and that the product be drawn ofl:' nonrotatively. It is suflicient for the present description to note that the drawing-off mechanism may conveniently comprise, as shown, a plurality of drums 27 and 28 ournalled respectively at 26 in a frame or standard 23, the drums having gears 26: connected by a belt 29, and the drum 27 having a worm gear 25 driven by a worm 24 on the shaft 6, acting to draw off non-rotatively ,the com leted product which is wound around the ruins one or more times and thence delivered for storage.

As already indicated, the preforming head 40 may, and preferably does, rotate as a unitary structure with the flier or rotor carried by the spindle 9, and comprising also the reels 30, and accordingly I have shown the ring gear 60 in Figs. 1 to 3 as fastened by screws 61 and brackets 62 to thestandard 2 and cap 12, so that it is fixed against rotation, and therefore the spur gears 59 travel in a planetary orbit therewithin upon rotation of the spindle'i).

I claim:

1. In a stranding machine, means to form a plurality of strand components into helices, comprising a rotatable head having a plurality of preforming devices arranged about its axis, a plurality of sets of rolls each adapted to drive a strand component through one of said preforming devices, a mug geared reeven when they are severed, and' whether or not there is provided a core wirespectively to said rolls and adapted to actuate said rolls simultaneously upon relative rota- 'tion of said head and ring, and means to rotate said head. i

2. In a stranding machine, a rotatable preforming head mounted on a spindle and provided with a series of nozzles each adapted to form'a strand component into a helix, said nozzles being arranged in convergent positions about the axis of said head to deliver the helical components for laying in coaxial relation to form a strand, rope or ca'ble continuously along said axis, and means to drive said helical components through said nozzles, said means comprising a series of rolls in pairs, one pair for each strand component and each pair including a driving roll and an idler roll, said driving rolls being actuated by-shafts journalled in bearings carried by said head and having worm-gears meshing with worms on shafts also mounted in bearings on said'head, said worm-shafts having axes parallel with the axis of the head and being provided with gears arranged in a circle about said axis, meshing with an internal ring-gear adapted to cause rotation of said worm-shaft gears, worms, worm-gears and driving rolls respectively, upon relative said worm-shaft gears, and means to cause rotation of said spindle and preforming head. In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification.

EDWARD A. CONNER. 

